


A Day at the Beach

by EventHorizon



Category: Cabin Pressure
Genre: Beaches, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-11-19
Updated: 2013-11-19
Packaged: 2018-01-02 00:49:12
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,203
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1050549
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/EventHorizon/pseuds/EventHorizon
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Martin and Arthur get a chance to spend the day at the beach.  Of course, this simple outing turns out to be not so simple...</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Day at the Beach

**Author's Note:**

> I was asked about a little sequel for another piece I posted ([Not What it Looks Like](http://archiveofourown.org/works/1049232)) that featured Martin's reaction to an eyeful of Arthur Shappey's... _attributes_. This isn't a sequel to that piece, but it does have a little of that reaction, and maybe Arthur has a reaction of his own (non-pervy so just simmer down...)

      “Are you certain this is the way?”

      “I checked the map twice, Skip.  Douglas said this was the best place to go _and_ the nice man where I bought the sandwiches said it was the most brilliant beach on the entire island!”

      “Don’t you think, though, that the best beach on the island would be easier to find?”

      “The best things aren’t always easy to find, Skip.  Sometimes, actually, they’re the very hardest.  And I promise you that this is right.  See, Douglas marked the path to take and…”

Martin slammed on the brakes of their rented car and ignored Arthur’s ear-splitting shriek.

      “Douglas?  You let Douglas _plot_ the course?   Arthur, we’re going to end up driving over a cliff!  Or, he’ll send us to a… goat farm or something.”

      “Don’t be silly, Skip.  If we went off a cliff, Douglas would have to pilot GERTI home alone and there’d be no one to bring him his coffee and lunch and you know how cross Douglas gets when I’m even _slow_ bringing him his coffee.  But wouldn’t it be brilliant if we did find a goat farm!  All those lovely little goats leaping around.  And there could be baby goats, which are especially cute and some of them actually faint!  I saw a video about tiny goats that faint when they get a bit of a scare and they were brilliant!  They don’t really faint, though, so you don’t have to put those little wake-up capsules under their noses, but they do fall over a moment and then pick themselves up again and go right on being cute.  How far are we from the goat farm?”

      “We are not going to a goat farm!  At least I hope we’re not.  Let me see the map… ok, at least the road ends in something called a beach, so I’m going to hope this isn’t some grand joke by the mapmaker to fool people into visiting the local souvenir stand.”

      “But Skip!  We barely have _any_ souvenirs from this trip!”

      “You have an entire shopping bag filled with plastic paraphernalia, Arthur.  Surely that’s enough.”

      “I don’t have a goat, though.”

      “You are _not_ bringing a goat on GERTI!”

      “We brought a cat.”

      “And do you remember the rather royal ruckus associated with said killer cat?”

      “I’m going to keep it in the cabin with me, though.  And I’ll load lots of tasty vegetables for it to eat…”

      “And put a nappy on its bum for when those vegetables have done their work.”

      “Oh… well, that _is_ something to think about isn’t it?”

      “Yes, so you do that while I try and find this supposedly amazing beach that Douglas is navigating me towards.”

Martin got the car going again and hoped that this really wasn’t some ridiculous runaround he was being sent on.  An extra day on a beautiful island… Douglas happily making progress with several possible companions in their hotel… lots of sunscreen on hand so he could actually enjoy a day at the beach without frying to a crisp… a new book and a variety of sand toys to keep Arthur occupied… this had the makings of a good day.  An honestly good day.  The kind of good days that didn’t happen to Martin Crieff, so if they did end up petting goats he wouldn’t be terribly surprised, but what if this once… just this once, he could have a normal, relaxing, fun day?  It wasn’t asking a lot, was it?

      “There’s a sign!”

Martin popped out of his reverie and looked where Arthur was pointing.  Sure enough, there was a very faded sign pointing in the direction they were already traveling, so the Captain breathed a large sigh of relief that goats were now officially off the agenda.  Sun, sand, water… this was going to be fantastic.

__________

      “We’re going back to the hotel.”

      “But Skip!  We drove forever to get here and look – it’s beautiful!”

Oh, it was very beautiful.  Water as blue as the sky, sand as white as the clouds… naked people running around like it was… like it was a nude beach, which it was, so Douglas Richardson was officially a dead man.

      “Arthur, is there not something in this lovely picture that stands out as a bit… strange?”

The steward stared hard at the scene in front of him and applied the full power of his mind to the problem.

      “There aren’t many kiddies.”

      “Yes, that is exactly what I meant.  I was startled by the lack of children, as opposed, say, to the abundance of naked people.”

      “Hurray!  I got it right!”

      “Arthur!  This is a nude beach!  I am _not_ going to a nude beach!”

      “Why not?”

      “Alright, let’s consider the two words – nude and beach.  One of those is a happy, pleasant, sandcastle-y word and the other is a very naked and waggle-y word.  Naked and waggle-y trumps the lot, so we’re going back immediately!”

      “But Skip, there’s nothing wrong with being naked!  I mean you’re always naked under your clothes, and when you were born you were naked and how can anything be wrong if you’re born that way!  And when you take a bath you’re naked and it’s not like you’ve got any naked parts that anyone else doesn’t have.  Well, you don’t have lady naked parts, but that’s to be expected since you aren’t a lady, though you really can’t tell all the time because Ms. Fischer who owns the cheese shop is a lady, even though she has man parts, but you _can_ have man parts and be a lady if you want to, so hurray for Ms. Fischer!  Now let’s go!”

Arthur began stripping off his clothes and Martin knew his choices were very limited.  Sit in the car, the hot and boring car… drive back to the hotel and have to drive back later to retrieve naked Arthur, which would actually mean leaving behind naked Arthur and that was not something he was prepared to do.  Clothed Arthur needed enough of a watchful eye, but a frolicking naked one… going back to the hotel was not going to happen.  That left… when they passed out guardian angels they apparently ran out before they got to his name on the list.

Martin slowly began to draw off his shirt, but pulled it back down hearing the jubilant ‘Brilliant!’ ring out loud as a bell.  Arthur was naked as a newborn and dancing happily next to the car.  And… Martin hoped he wasn’t staring, but he _was_ staring and… woof.

      “This is great!  I get to go swimming and play in the sand and have a great time and not have to worry about getting my swimming shorts soggy!  I wish I could do this all the time.”

Arthur really needed to stop dancing.  He really, really needed to stop dancing so things didn’t wave around so much.  Very large things and very much waving were not a helpful combination.

      “Skip?  Are you ok?  Why aren’t you naked yet?”

Because if he was naked right now, Arthur just might get very good idea about how large things waving freely affected the body of a rather lonely airdot pilot.

      “I… I thought I’d gather up our things first and follow you in a minute.”

      “Brilliant!  Because I’m ready to go and have fun!  I’ll see you out there.  Oh!  Put our towels over by that tree so you can stay in the shade when you need to.  When you need it, I’ll help you put on more lotion so you don’t burn.  You could really burn in some very new places out here couldn’t you?”

No… naked and… why did Arthur even _know_ about grooming down there… naked and trimmed Arthur was not going to rub lotion on his skin.  Not with _that_ a few inches away.  No, there would be no lotion, no rubbing, no looking, no touching, no nothing.  And no noticing that Arthur had a cute bum to go along with… _that_ … out in the front.

__________

Martin used his book, their beach belongings and their lunch to shield himself during the walk to the spot Arthur had indicated and was very pleased with himself that if anyone caught a glimpse of anything, it was brief and not of anything worth mentioning.  Not that anything on him _was_ worth mentioning, as he’d come to understand from the rare and generally unsatisfying experience he’d endured where his wares were on display, but that still didn’t mean he wanted his all out there for people to see.  Though it didn’t seem that anyone much cared about that, now that he sat there, book in his lap, and observed.  Just a lot of people doing what one normally did at the beach.  No pointing, no staring, no sitting with a book in your lap… Arthur seemed to actually be on the same wavelength as everyone else out here, which was an event worth noting in the history books.  And the steward was absolutely having a wonderful time.  Already he was in the water splashing and outshining the sun with his brilliant smile.  And he was so… free.  No posing or posturing like so many did at the beach.  Sucking in his belly or trying to attract attention.  He was simply having a wonderful time and practically glowed with happiness.  Martin couldn’t help but notice that, and this was completely unbiased, of course, that Arthur’s contentment made him the most striking person out there and suddenly… this didn’t seem like such a bad idea.  If a little nudity was the price he had to pay to make the steward this joyful, then Martin would pay it gladly.

      “Skip!  You have to come out here!”

And by pay, he meant sit in camouflage mode under this nice tree and let the others enjoy their bare-arsed fun and games.

      “I’m fine right where I am!”

No… don’t come this way, Arthur.  Go back to swimming and don’t come over here with your… just keep all interesting bits out of arm’s reach.  And, of course, Arthur had to drop to his knees directly next to Martin and shake his head to fling out the excess water, making other things shake as well.

      “Skip, you have to come swimming with me.  Seriously, you have to.  The water is brilliant and it’s not too hot and there’s fish!  I saw fish and you have to come, Skip!  Come on, right now, really _right_ right now…”

      “I thought I’d just get a bit of reading done first, Arthur, and… urk!”

Martin was dragged to his feet and failing utterly to keep his book as his modesty shield.

      “Oh, Skip… oh…”

What?”

      “What?”

      “Well… ok, well…”

      “What!”

      “Well, you’re rather… woof.”

 _He_ was woof?

      “I’m woof?”

      “Oh yes… I’d even say _woofity_ woof.  I hadn’t really thought about anyone being ginger _all over_ , but… that’s a very lovely color.”

      “Thank you?”

      “You’re welcome!  And, here turn around…”

Arthur grabbed Martin’s shoulders and spun him a few times.

      “You’re very lucky, Skip… you’re so small and cute and have cute bits as well as being just all-over cute… you should be naked more often!”

      “I… I… I… really?”

      “Yes…  oh!  Brilliant!  We can have Naked Day once a month.  Or even once a week!  Just going about our business nice and naked, even if we can’t be on a beach.  Maybe just watch the telly or play a game… this is a great idea!  I’m glad I had it!  I wish I had something to write all of this down so I don’t’ forget.”

      “Arthur, I’m sorry, but I can’t imagine Carolyn allowing you to prance around her house without any clothes on.”

      “I must admit that you might be right about that.  Mum _does_ get a bit testy when I prance around _with_ my clothes on, so naked prancing might earn me one of her ‘now see here’s’ and those aren’t very much fun.  We’ll have to do it at your flat.”

My, hadn’t the day taken a surreal turn.

      “No.  There will be no naked prancing at my flat.”

      “Sure there will because I’ll be there and so will you and we’ll be naked and there _could_ be prancing if we feel like it.  This is wonderful!  This is already the best day ever and it’s just started!  Now come on, we have a lot of swimming to do and then I want to build a sandcastle and maybe draw pictures in the sand and then there’s lunch…"

Arthur tugged on Martin’s arm and, suddenly, Martin started to race along behind the laughing steward.  And he didn’t feel nervous or shy or ashamed or scared… he was just naked and enjoying the sun with someone who loved life so much you couldn’t be near him and not love it, too.  And who cut more than one glance backwards to peek at bits that Martin found himself not so worried about being out there to be peeked at.  For a simple day at the beach, it really was turning into something quite special.

      “Look, Skip!  I can float on my back!”

Oh yes… with some parts more special than others…


End file.
